Chapter 14
I opened my eyes. A white light. A lumpy pillow, warm blankets. A bed that was profoundly unfamiliar.
“Bella!” My mother was hovering over me, dark circles under her eyes. I blinked, lifting my right arm and trying to brush aside a strand of brown hair hanging over her forehead. It felt...strange. Almost painful. I looked at my right arm. There was an IV stuck in it. And metal rails surrounded me on both sides.
“Mom?” I muttered. “Where-“
“Oh, I’ve been so worried about you!” She threw her arms out as if about to hug me, and then evidently thought better of it.
“How long have I been out?” I asked, twisting my neck to see the monitor, a small monster that looked like it was from the early ‘90s. A green line rose and fell in time with my heartbeat. I tried to ignore the huge apparatus that was hoisting my unrecognizable right leg in the air.
“Two days, Bells,” my mother said, taking my right hand into her two hands. “Your friends brought you to the hospital here. Your leg was shattered and they knocked you out because of the pain.”
“My friends?” I said, shaking my head and wincing at the headache that reprimanded me for that small action. “Where’s...where’s Charlie?”
“He went to get some food. He fell asleep here last night, waiting for you to wake up.”
My heart swelled for my poor father. A vampire had been standing guard over his house for an entire night and he hadn’t known about it. Then again, neither of us had known that two different vampires had been sneaking into my room. The only good thing about it was that they weren’t sneaking in at the same time.
“Speaking of people waiting for you to wake up,” Renee said suddenly, her grip on my hands suddenly much tighter. “Just what is that...young man’s relationship with you?”
I sat up and my mother made all those scared noises that mothers make when their children are ill and trying to do things beyond their capabilities. “Which one?” I asked.
“Oh, Lord, not the blond doctor or the tall brown-haired one. Although they are both,” she flushed, “very good-looking.”
“Don’t worry; they’re both taken and very happy,” I muttered. “I guess you mean Edward Cullen.”
“Yes, that young man.” Renee stared at me. I stared at the white walls; she was too perceptive for a mother. “He hasn’t been in this room, but he’s been waiting in the lobby for almost the entire time. He went home with his parents and siblings, and then came back almost immediately. That’s what he told me, but the way he drove back-“
“He’s a fast driver,” I said. I couldn’t believe I was having to explain Cullen’s insane behavior to my parents, but then again, this world was trying to drive me insane or to my grave. Whichever came fastest.
“Don’t get in a car with him,” Renee said quickly.
“I’ll try not to,” I assured her.
“Well, anyways,” Renee said, glancing over her shoulder. There was a curtain drawn over the glass doors with just the smallest sliver of view to the hallway outside, “he’s been sitting in the lobby, perfectly polite, asking questions of me or Charlie when we go into the lobby. Hasn’t come anywhere near this room or hallway. I have to say, he’s extraordinarily good-looking. What type of friends do you have in Forks?”
“I’m not too sure myself,” I said, scooting backwards and wincing at the feeling of the IV. “I...well, I guess now they’re my friends. Before they really weren’t. Actually, I really, really hated Cullen before, but now I can’t really hate him.”
My patient, dear mother watched me babble, her brown eyes wide, until the thing that had been attached to my index finger fell off. A little beeping noise started and a nurse came in.
“Well, that’s good. You’re up,” the nurse said, sliding the curtains back into place. “You’ll
want to put that back on.”
The plastic thing that was glowing red? I sighed, and put it on my finger again; it felt like a stubborn small dog’s grip, without the sharp teeth or nasty drool. Perhaps it was a sign that I had nothing to think about, that I was obsessing over these small details. The fact that no one in the room had golden eyes made me feel...well, as if I were in here for some small thing. I had fallen down the stairs or something. It was easy to forget.
“Bella!” Charlie stormed in the room, his hair disheveled and dark circles under his eyes as well. “You feeling all right?”
“Yeah,” I forced out, peering over my suspended leg to see my father. “Yeah, all right.” He glanced at Renee and flushed. Poor Charlie. “Aren’t you hungry, Mom?” I asked.
“Yeah,” she said, standing up. “I’ll-“
“The cafeteria’s still open,” the nurse said helpfully, bustling around and taking notes on a clipboard. She was still checking the computer. “You two go ahead. She’ll be fine.”
My mother nodded and said, almost carefully, “Care to join me?”
My father, just as carefully, said, “That sounds fine.” Before they pushed aside the curtain, my father turned around, “Bella, Edward wants to see you now that you’re awake. Is that all right?”
I bit my lip. “Sure,” I sighed.
It didn’t take long for him to arrive: the nurse, after asking if I needed anything, left. There was a clattering of a clipboard. I knew then that Edward had arrived. There was the sound of flustered “Oh, hello!” and Edward, his tone amused, talking the nurse through her moment of confusion.
He pulled the curtain aside. “You look better,” Edward said, smiling. He seated himself in a chair, far away from the bed. Good.
“Really?” I asked, moving my head so that my foot, wrapped in something that looked like cement, wouldn’t block my view of Edward anymore. I had hoped we could have some semblance of a conversation: eye contact, the basic rules of politeness, but of course, Edward was too good for something like eye contact. His hands were far more engrossing to him. I couldn’t see the appeal.
“Yeah. You looked bruised all over before. Ridiculously pale.”
“Watch your mouth,” I muttered, settling back in the bed now that I knew Edward Cullen didn’t know how to carry a conversation in a human way. I assume having a mind-reading trait minimized the chances for him to talk to someone normally.
“The irony hurts, doesn’t it?”
“Since when have you been so witty?”
“I don’t know, really. The blood must have done it.”
He had drunken my blood.
Oh God.
“I shouldn’t have mentioned it,” Edward said after a moment of silence. “I’m sorry.”
“I guess you saved my life though,” I said weakly. “Otherwise...I’d be like you.”
“That’s true,” his face was ugly when he was upset. It was something that was a bit sad to behold but comforting as well. He could be something other than angel-like.
“That’ll be twice.”
He finally looked up and our eyes met; my heart lurched, but no beeping started. His eyes were golden, almost orange. Was it my blood that had changed his eye color...James had had red eyes.
“Yes.”
“Do I owe you anything?” I said, my left hand forming a fist that sat in the mound of blankets. He sighed, an exaggerated motion for a person who didn’t need to breathe.
“No.”
“You sure?” I asked mockingly. “Surely you’d like to protect me a bit longer.”
“How about this? Let’s pretend that I never followed you. Which I admit was probably not right of me,” he was staring at his hands again. “I was always a bit irrational. It’s one of the few things I remember my mother telling me. That I was too quick to act. Anyways, I’m not going to do that to you again. You can ignore me. If you want, I can ignore you.”
“Aren’t we always having this conversation?”
He smiled slightly at his hands. “Well, yes. But now, there isn’t anything that I can be irrational over. I can be a proper vampire now. And I’ve proven myself anyways.”
“So I was just a test all along,” I whispered. It was almost a hiss. He wasn’t smiling anymore, but he wasn’t frowning either. That maddening neutral expression was back.
“Isn’t that life, Bella? People and situations are just all tests in life. In the end, you're just proving yourself for yourself.”
And then, he walked out of the room and, I hoped, out of my life. Of course, it wasn't so. Like Cullen said, life is a series of tests. I had completed the first. I wasn't surprised that a few more tests came along. The beginning of the twilight of my life. All at first was bright and lovely. And then the day darkened and I didn't know what terrors of the night would arise.
So I wasn't surprised that a few more tests came along. It was to be expected.
AN: Eh, rather weak ending. Bleh. I'll fix it up later when I can think of it.
New Moon: Chapter 1